- `kubeadm init` and `kubeadm init phase` now have a `--image-repository` flag, improving support for environments with limited access to official kubernetes repository.
- The DynamicKubeletConfig and SelfHosting functionality was moved outside of `kubeadm init` and feature gates and is now exposed under `kubeadm alpha`.

- Introduced a structured and versioned `v1alpha1` response for the `statusz` endpoint. ([#134313](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/134313), [@richabanker](https://github.com/richabanker)) [SIG API Machinery, Architecture, Instrumentation, Network, Node, Scheduling and Testing]

  For metrics `etcd_request_duration_seconds`, `etcd_requests_total` and `etcd_request_errors_total` replace `type` label with API `resource` and `group` label.
  For metric `apiserver_selfrequest_total` add a API `group` label.
  For metrics `apiserver_watch_events_sizes` and `apiserver_watch_events_total` replace API `kind` label with `resource` label.

#### client-go:

- Rename metrics `etcd_object_counts` to `apiserver_storage_object_counts` and mark it as stable. The original `etcd_object_counts` metrics name is marked as "Deprecated" and will be removed in the future. ([#99785](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/99785), [@erain](https://github.com/erain)) [SIG API Machinery, Instrumentation and Testing]

- kube-proxy now reconciles Service/Endpoint changes with conntrack table and cleans up only stale UDP flow entries ([#127318](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/127318), [@aroradaman](https://github.com/aroradaman)) [SIG Network and Windows]

  deletion and graceful node shutdown. ([#115331](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/115331), [@mimowo](https://github.com/mimowo)) [SIG Cloud Provider, Node and Testing]

- Added a mechanism that calculates a digest of etcd and the watch cache every 5 minutes and exposes it as the `apiserver_storage_digest` metric. ([#130475](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/130475), [@serathius](https://github.com/serathius)) [SIG API Machinery, Instrumentation and Testing]
- Added a new CLI flag `--emulation-forward-compatible`

- Fixes a 1.29.0 regression that introduced a possible data race that could cause panics in kube-controller-manager and kube-scheduler ([#124518](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/124518), [@wojtek-t](https://github.com/wojtek-t)) [SIG API Machinery and Scheduling]

    - [Quality of Service for memory resources](#quality-of-service-for-memory-resources)
    - [API changes and improvements for ephemeral containers](#api-changes-and-improvements-for-ephemeral-containers)
  - [Known Issues](#known-issues)
    - [CPU and Memory manager are not working correctly for Guaranteed Pods with multiple containers](#cpu-and-memory-manager-are-not-working-correctly-for-guaranteed-pods-with-multiple-containers)